Alt-Idol News

That Is New To Me: Ref （レフ）

There is one thing about being a fan of idol, you never run out of new things to find. If you are even a casual reader of this site you will know that I am always looking for and usually finding something new. Sometimes it will be something that is new to me but not actually new at all. Sometimes it will be something so new that they don’t even have full member rosters yet.

Today it is one of the former, an idol that has been around for a while in one form or another: Ref

I will be the first to admit, this will be light on content as there isn’t much out there. I really just wanted everyone to hear about her. Big thanks to my good pal Kris, I had forgotten about Ref until he brought her up.

Where do you start with an idol like Ref? I guess the first thing to tell you is that she is was one of the three winners of the TSUTAYAプリンセスグランプリ (TSUTAYA Princess Grand Prix) in 2014.

Back when this was going on she was going by her name, AzawaMahiru, which she still uses for her gravure and other types of modeling. But that is not why we are here. We are here for music. I will of course have links to all of her various accounts at the end of the article.

On with the music talk. I started by trying to go back through her Twitter for information Which really lead to a kind of dead-end. Her main Twitter seems to have been reset in July, the Ref Twitter was started in January but not used until March. She does seem to have been making music before that. This video advertising her first CD is from February and the song, 処女信仰 (Virginity Faith), is hers.

As well as this song, ポートレートパレード(Portrait Parade), also advertising the same release.

So, when you get down to it, she has been doing music longer than her history lets on. I would say that she is one of the “struggling” idols. Super independent, like many of her fellow solo idols, like GARUDA, who she plays with a good deal it seems. They play to very small crowds.

So, we have all the boilerplate stuff out of the way, now we can get onto the fun stuff, her gimmick. I am not going to actually talk about the music, I think it speaks for itself.

I would like to introduce to you her onstage partner, B-003

B-003 doesn’t just sit there on a stick either, she sings. Yeah, you heard me, sings. Well wails really, but still, it is quite the thing. Hell, B-003 even does cheki. Here is a live video of one of Ref’s performances, it is from her YouTube channel. I think it might be the only example of her performing live out there. I think we need more.

As you heard, the music is good, really good. It makes me sad sometimes thinking that there are all these underground idols that are so unknown. They deserve better don’t you think? Yes, they could do a little more self promotion, some live video, It would give a bit more exposure and make it easier for folks like me to find them and introduce them to you.